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OUTLANDER Recap: “Common Ground”

By Rueben | November 26, 2018

After finding land in the Blue Ridge Mountains very much to their liking in last week’s episode of Outlander, Jamie and Claire were back in Wilmington so that Jamie to sign the deed to 10,000 acres of “the King’s land” for which to settle upon and arrange for Fergus to gather other settlers to join them – specifically Highlanders and former Ardsmuir Prisoners – AND to gather all the provisions they needed to begin their new life in America.

While there, Claire shared a touching moment with new “daughter-in-law” Marsali, who has obviously come to accept Claire as a substitute mother [of sorts] and who was very pregnant with her and Fergus’s first child. Marsali told Claire that she misses her mother, wishing she could be there with her during the delivery of the child and also to share your worry about being able to raise a child as well. This conversation, naturally, made Claire worry about her and Jamie’s daughter Brianna.

Soon enough, though, they were on their way to Fraser’s Ridge to make camp and begin the arduous process of marking out their boundary lines. All was pleasant for a brief time as they planted red-flagged posts to mark their land and to carve the initials “FR” into the Witness Trees that marked the furthest point of their property. Unfortunately, they were surprised by an unexpected visit by five young Cherokee braves. While the Fraser family intended the natives no harm, in fact, Jamie dropped his knife before them to prove so, the braves merely stared at them and then walked away peacefully.

The story then jumped to Roger at Oxford University in 1971 who seemed to be very wistful, staring out the window and then pulling out the book given to him by Brianna in North Carolina the previous year while they were at the Scottish Festival. As he glanced at the Highlander portrait taken of him and Brianna, he spied a picture that mentioned Fraser’s Ridge.

Overlaid with that scene was Claire, Jamie and Ian working the land, cutting down trees and removing rocks to make way for the plans for a cabin for them to live in, a shed for their meat and a “wee shed” for Claire’s herbs and physician’s knives and such. It was then that Ian came a-running because the Cherokee braves were back, plunging several boundary posts back into the ground at Jamie’s feet while one of the braves seemingly warned them of trouble in their native tongue.

We then leapt forward in time to Roger getting further information from the book’s author about Fraser’s Ridge that confirmed the purchase of the land in North Caroline by Jamie as well as a letter from a woman with family in England that spoke of James Fraser and his wife Claire, a healer. Of course, he called Brianna in Boston to give her the news. She seemed pleased and stunned with the news but their conversation soon became awkward and they both bid each other goodbye [as it turned out that was the first time they had talked since Roger’s failed proposal.]

Back in time, Jamie and Claire talked late at night inside their small lean-to-cabin about what to do about the Natives. It was determined that no matter where they would go on their land, they would still have a problem with the Cherokee. Jamie wanted to speak with them, but he needed to seek counsel from Scottish backwoodsman John Quincy Myers the next morning. Regrettably, they were awoken in the early hours by the barking of Rollo, finding their campsite trashed, their food source stolen and one of their horses badly mauled but what Claire believed to be a bear.

Jamie shared this information with John Quincy Myers the following morning, learning that the Cherokee had recently been attacked by a Tskili Yona – basically an evil bear – that the natives believed was more than just a bear. John told Jamie he would go to the Cherokee on his behave since he was known to them – much more so than Jamie – to see if he could mend the problems between the two; and John warned Jamie to put off building their cabin until the issue could be resolved.

After a short scene shared between Claire and Ian about learning to knit, which is something Claire never learned to do – much to Ian’s amazement – he told her he could teach her; and she was surprised to learn that even Jamie had learned how to knit. It was during this scene that Claire was checking to make sure she remembered how to shot a rifle and Jamie spoke to her of how different it is to shoot at a small piece of wood versus that of a charging enemy [a statement that would haunting reverberations later in the episode.]

That night the Frasers were seemingly revisited by the bear while the Cherokee gathered at their hut to conduct what seemed to be a ceremony calling on the bear to attack. But the bear at the Fraser camp turned out to be John Quincy Myers who had been brutally mauled. While Claire and Ian tended to the wounded man, Jamie ran out into the woods to confront the bear, which turned out to be an Indian man cloaked in bearskin and armed with sharp talons on his hands. The fight between the Tskili Yona and Jamie was harsh, ending with Jamie plunging one of the property line posts deep into the man’s body.

The following morning Jamie dragged the dead body into the Cherokee camp where he soon learned the young brave who spoke of warning to him the previous day – Tawodi – could actually speak English, explaining that the bear-man was once a great warrior of their tribe, but the man had harmed his woman, taking her against her wishes, which in turn caused the tribe to banish him. He returned again and again to the tribe, but they would not accept him so the bear-man fled deep into the woods where his mind was lost forever, becoming the Tskili Yona. The tribe, however, could not kill what was already dead to them, but now – thanks to Jamie – there would no longer be trouble for the tribe. But Jamie asked if his family would still have trouble from the tribe…

It wasn’t until a short time later that the young brave, the tribe’s Chief Nawohali and others from the tribe came to visit the Fraser at their campsite, telling them that it was the Chief’s hope that no more blood would be spilled between them; and the Chief also gave Jamie a new name – Bear Killer. The tribe was invited to join them and Claire met with the tribe’s great healer Adawehi (guest star Tantoo Cardinal, who sharp-eyed viewers will remember as Snow Bird in many an episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman back in the day) and her granddaughter-in-law Giduhwa. It was during this scene that Adawehi – through translation by Giduhwa – told Claire of a dream that she had about Claire that was quite prophetic – not much unlike things told to Claire by both Mrs. Graham and Margaret Campbell in years past.

The final scenes were of Roger at the manse in Inverness, picking up the last of his belongings from Fiona where he learned that his former housekeeper – the granddaughter of Mrs. Graham, who helped Roger’s adopted father in his historical research many, many years prior – had discovered among her grandmother’s belongings an article from the early 1770’s that stated James Fraser and his wife Claire had died in a fire on Fraser’s Ridge. This was juxtaposed with scenes of Jamie and Claire doing more work on their land, Jamie carrying Claire over the threshold of their outlined cabin and talking about their plans for their future home. The very last scene was of Roger finally calling Boston in order to share the news of the fire with Brianna only to learn from Gayle – Brianna’s roommate – that Brianna had left for Scotland a couple weeks earlier to “visit her mother.” That news naturally shocked Roger as the scene went to black.

What are your thoughts on this episode? Did you like the short scene between Marsali and Claire? Were you on the edge of your seats when the natives showed up and when Jamie was fighting the Tskili Yona? What did you think of the news that Brianna had left for Scotland? Please share your thoughts below.

NOTE: Did you guys see that adorable little boxer in the scenes with Brianna’s roommate Gayle? Well that cute little dog is actually the pet of the show’s executive producer Maril Davis.

The next new episode of Outlander will air on Starz on Sunday, December 2 at 8/7c.